As a source of heat and for aesthetic reasons, fireplaces are frequently incorporated into homes. There are currently several fireplace options available to consumers: traditional fuel (wood or coal)-burning fireplaces, gas-burning fireplaces, and electric fireplaces. Traditional fuel-burning fireplaces generally offer the greatest heat-production and aesthetics, but require more set-up and maintenance time to operate. Gas-burning fireplaces offer a real flame and convenience, but lack the natural sound, flickering, and shadowing associated with traditional fuel-burning fires. Electric fireplaces do not offer a real flame, but have many safety and convenience features.
Traditional fuel-burning and gas-burning fireplaces as well as conventional electric fireplaces also lack a visually attractive display means for displaying control settings. For example, a conventional electric fireplace does not feature a lighted visual display by which a user can quickly and easily determine the currently selected control settings simply by looking at the electric fireplace.